


The Moon and Stars Hide in Your Eyes

by eggosandxmen



Category: All New X-Men (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/F, im trash for commoner/servant x prince/princess stories, jeans a princess and laura is a servant, jeans like no shes my friend, lauras like... considered a thing because of her clone-y origins but jean dont know bout that, princess jean!! angry servant laura who doesnt take any crap!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 14:40:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10766316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggosandxmen/pseuds/eggosandxmen
Summary: Jean is a princess, Laura works for her. They fall in love.





	The Moon and Stars Hide in Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Yo!!! This is another thing!! Trigger warning: Laura is treated like a thing by literally everyone except Jeannie. Which is canon in the books but whatever. Stay safe!!!

“All rise for the family Sutter-Rice!” A voice rang out.

Jean stood, head held high as she was taught, staring down at the red haired man swaggering into the throne room. Rice.She never really liked the Sutter-Rice family. But today is her birthday, and they’re sure to bring a gift. Rice and Sutter (Prince Rice and King Sutter, she scolds herself, but she can’t think of them in fancy terms) walk in, bowing to the royals on the thrones. Sutter’s wife and son walk in after them, dragging something- no, someone- along.

The woman- more of a girl, really- is being pulled along. She’s got on more chains then Jean has ever seen on one human (including when Scott first came, and he had them everywhere) and to top it off, she’s wearing a gag.

“King Grey, Queen Grey, Princess Jean!” Rice says, spreading his arms. “We come in celebration of this happy occasion with a gift! A new servant.” He smiles. Jean feels like she’s going to throw up. She’s never really had servants, none like this, none with chains and bruises all over them. The only one she’d ever had was called Madelyne, who helped her when she was little. But Madelyne was never like a servant, more of a friend.

But, now, she can’t refuse this “gift.” That would cause enmity between the two families. So Jean swallows the bile in her throat and takes the girl’s chains from Sutter’s wife’s grip.

As the adults confer, Jean manages to slip away, still clutching the girl’s chains.

They reached Jean’s room pretty quickly. The place was a modest affair, especially for a princess. A large bed sat in the center, and that’s where Jean leads the girl. They sit down on the bed, the girl perched awkwardly, and Jean undoes her gag. The girl is quite literally shaking by this point. 

“Uh, hi! I’m Jean, and, uh, I guess you live here now? What’s your name?”

The girl doesn’t respond.

“Uh, can you speak?”

The girl nods.

“Do you want too?”

Head shake.

“Can you tell me your name?

Head shake.

“Do you have a name?”

Head shake.

“A designation?”

Nod.

“What is it?”

She lifts her arm to reveal a tattoo. X-23, it read.

“X-23?”

Nod.

“Can I call you 23?”

Head shake, and her breath speeds up. It probably is associated with some baad memories, Jean realizes.

“How about X? Is that okay?”

Nod. 

“Okay, then. A few things, now.” Jean says, putting her hand on X’s leg. The girl flinched away. “Oh, crap, sorry- anyway, look, I’m not going to hurt you, or whatever. I don’t do that! I don’t do any of this- any of whatever Rice and Sutter did to you. But I can’t free you, or it’d be thought of as a refusal of gift and that would cause some bad things with Sutter and Rice.”

Nod.

“I’m sorry about this. Can I- can I hug you, X?”

Slowly, shakily, she nods.

Jean grabs her in her arms and though initially she freezes up, eventually she wraps her arms around Jean, too.

Jean and X attend dinner alone. The young servant stands in the back of the room, waiting for Jean to finish, and Jean wants nothing more to have a normal dinner with her boys- her boys who’ve been missing for weeks- and X. But she sits, stiff, as her parents pretend to care about her birthday.

“So, Jean, how’s the slave Rice gave you?”

“She’s not a slave, Dad.”

“What?”

“Slaves- slavery is stupid. X is- X is a person. Not my property.”

“Sure.” Her dad scoffs. Anyway, if you want, we could try to discipline it more-”

“No!” Jean yells, far too quickly. She knows what her father means by “discipline.” I- I mean, I can handle it, Dad. I’m 17 now.” She stutters out.

He nods. “Good girl, taking control.” 

Jean nods, and they eat in silence.

She manages to sneak enough food for X.

The other girl sits, poised, on Jean’s bed as she walks in. “Hey.” Jean says. “I got you food.”

Nod.

“Do you- can you write, X?”

Nod.

“One sec.” Jean says, rummaging through her desk, and producing a pad of paper. “Here! You can write on this and we can talk if you want.” She says, smiling.

The girl takes the notepad as though it’s made of gold.

“So, write- if you want.” Jean prompts.

She scrawls something quickly and turns it to Jean.

_Thank you._

Jean became oddly aware of the red flush on her cheeks.

 

It goes on like this for weeks. X and Jean normally talk through the night (well, Jean does the talking), and they attend royal things during the day. X avoids being noticed, Jean worries about where the boys are, and they become incredibly close.

Then.

Oh, then.

Jean and X are sitting on her bed, arguing some royal thing. Jean thinks X, to put it bluntly, is being stupid. And she’s being stubborn and annoying and Jean is tired and fed-up and then she writes _You’re being stupid_ , Jean ad that’s the final straw.

Slap.

And then there’s an angry welt on X’s cheek and she’s staring at Jean and she looks scared and Jean realizes what she just done.

“Oh, God, X, I didn’t mean-” she starts, reaching for her hand, but X flinches away and then shoots out of the room.

 

“X!” Jean screams, running out after her. But the girl is gone. “X, please, I didn’t mean it! X!” she screams again, running through the hall. A guard tries to grab her but she shoves past, still running. “X!”

She skids through three more hallways before she hears what sounds like a whimper from a room close by. She runs in, to find the smaller girl in the corner, he arms around her knees, trying to keep quiet. Her entire cheek is on fire.

“Oh, God, X, I’m so sorry.”

The girl across from her makes a noise (a rarity), that sounds like a mixture of a whimper and a growl. She writes something on the notepad she still carries and turns it to Jean.

_I apologize, ma’am._ She wrote, and the expression on her face is full of of much venom and fear at the same time that Jean feels like breaking down. “C’mon, X, you can call me Jean, you know that.”

She shakes her head and curls further in on herself. Jean takes the cue and walks out.

X doesn’t return to their room that night for hours. Jean stays awake, but with the light off. She wanders in around midnight,stumbling over a bruise that Jean didn’t recognize on her leg, and falls asleep on the ground rather than curling up next to Jean like they normally do.

When Jean wakes up the next morning, X is gone. There’s a note taped to the door.

_Jean_ -then some scribbles- _I mean Miss grey,_

_I went out. Please don’t come to look for me._

_X-23_

Jean feels bile building in her throat, and she knows she can’t _do_ it today.

She calls her guards, tell them to make sure no one bothers her, and sits on her bed, listening to music a piper plays from outside and hating herself.

But, really, there’s only one thought on her mind.

_What did I do?_

X returns, much later. Jean is asleep on her bed, curled into a little ball clutching X’s note, and the girl looks so small X’s resolve breaks for a moment and she wants to crawl in with her, like they always do. But, now, X remembers her place.

But she’s _asleep._ She could just sleep in the bed for a few hours, no one would _know,_ X reasons.

She gets out of her work clothes and puts on a slave jumper that she uses for nightwear and crawls in, careful not to go too near to Jean. The other girl is softly breathing, and X watches her until she falls asleep. The bruise on her cheek hurts less.

 

***

Jean wakes up an hour later to X wrapped around her, dreaming. Careful not to move too much, Jean smiles and puts herself closer to to the other girl.

_(More body heat,_ she thinks, _nothing more.)_

 

At 5 o’clock, X wakes up, Jean still in her arms. Her immediate thought is to get up and run, but Jean’s asleep and if she wakes her up, X would probably get in trouble. So she carefully removes her arms from around Jean, and, scrawling a note, walks out quietly.

Three hours later, Jean wakes up to a note on her door, wondering if last night had been a dream.

Then she picks up the note.

_Miss-_ scribbles- _Jean, I mean Jean-_

_I apologize for falling asleep on your bed last night. I sincerely hope that I will not get in trouble for it. To be honest it was rather nice. I will see you tonight. I missed you. Though hitting me isn't okay if we're friends._

_X_

Well, apparently not.

So Jean climbs out of bed, puts on her gown, and goes to royalty meetings the rest of the day.

When she gets back, X is sitting on the ground, unlacing her boots.

“Hi.” She says, and flops on the bed.

_Hello._ X writes, finishing her last boot.

“Royalty sucks, X, y’know that? My dad keeps trying to set me up with princes.”

_What’s wrong with princes?_

“I- They're just idiotic.”

_No, I mean what's the real reason?_

“I can never lie to you, can I?” 

_No._

“Fine.” She says, taking a deep breath.

It’s just X. This won’t change anything, she thinks.

“I- I like girls, X.”

_Ah. Tell your father that, then. _she writes, shrugging nonchalantly.__

__“What?!” Jean says, sitting straight up. “Are you insane? My dad is a traditionalist! He would kill me!”_ _

___You see?_ This _is why I do not like your parents.__ _

__“I’m not _supposed_ to like girls, though! How are you okay with this?”_ _

___Where I'm from, the punishment is death. To slaves, it's 50 lashes over a period of days and then death. I tend not to persecute others like that._ _ _

__“Oh.” Jean says, turning pink._ _

___But anyway, about your… prince issue. Just keep postponing it, for as long as you can. You can rule without a king, yes?_ _ _

__“I could, but getting married would allow kinship with a new kingdom.”_ _

___Ah._ _ _

__“Anyway, enough about my love life, or lack thereof. How was your day?”_ _

___Not much better. The cook found me stealing food and punched me- I think my hand might be broken- and I ran into your sister. She doesn't like me much._ _ _

__“She's got a thing against everyone- wait, the cook broke your hand?”_ _

___Yes. It's okay, though, it doesn't even hurt that much._ _ _

__“X, _your hand is broken.”__ _

___Well, there's not much I can do about it!_ _ _

__“We’re going to the medicine hall. They'll have something. And it's more fun then sitting here doing nothing.”_ _

__She drags the other girl through the halls until she slides into the med bay._ _

__“Cecilia!” She yells, sliding to a halt in front of one of the doctors._ _

__“What is it, Jean?”_ _

__“My friend broke her hand.”_ _

__The doctor sighs and turns to X. “Right, you're gonna have to come with me. You need a surgery, it looks like.”_ _

___Surgery?_ X writes, her face going pale. Jean squeezes her non-broken hand. “If you want, I can come.”_ _

__X nods._ _

__Cecilia- or Doc Reyes, as she told X to call her- has X on a table in a few minutes. Ana thesis is not allowed to be used on slaves, so she gives her some Advil and a belt to bite on while she puts the bone back together. Jean holds her other hand and the doctor fixes it all at once, causing X to scream much louder than Jean would have liked._ _

__“You're good! That's it! You're fine!” Doc Reyes says, putting down her tools._ _

__X nods, biting her lip from the pain. “Thanks, Doc.” Jean says. “X, are you good to go back?”_ _

__She nods again._ _

__Jean does not let go of her hand._ _


End file.
